Riedbahn

The Riedbahn (German for marsh railway) is a German standard gauge, electrified railway line and runs in southern Hesse between Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof and/or airport and Mannheim and/or Worms.

The Riedbahn is used by three InterCityExpress routes, connecting South Germany with Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Dortmund and regional services of the Rhine-Main transport union and Rhine-Neckar transport union. In order to overcome heavy congestion of the line and to accelerate train services, it is proposed to build a new line between Frankfurt and the Mannheim. The new line would mostly run close to the A5 and the A67 motorways. Deutsche Bahn originally proposed to build a bypass of the Mannheim central station (the most important rail junction in southwestern Germany), but dropped this plan for the time being in 2006 due to strong community and political opposition. Construction has not started yet due to the difficulty in reaching agreement on the details of the project, but with the dropping of the Mannheim bypass and agreement on a spur line to Darmstadt, progress is now possible and Deutsche Bahn Chairman, Hartmut Mehdorn has been reported as calling for the new line to be opened in 2014. [cite journal
title =Frankfurt-Mannheim new line
journal =Modern Railways
volume =64
issue =703
pages =64–65
publisher =Ian Allen
date =April 2007
accessdate =2007-06-15 ]

History

Origin

The Riedbahn was originally built by the Hessische Ludwigsbahn (Hessian Ludwig Railway), to connect Darmstadt with Worms. In 1869 the line opened from Darmstadt über (now Riedstadt) via Goddelau and Biblis to Rosengarten (a suburb of Lampertheim). The Worms-Rosengarten train ferry conveyed trains across the Rhine from 1870 to December 1900, when it was replaced by a double-line bridge. The line from Biblis to the Mannheim suburb of Waldhof was opened in October 1879, so that the route to Mannheim ended not in the central station, but in the Riedbahnhof, north of today's Kurpfalz Bridge. In November 1879 the line from Goddelau to Frankfurt was opened.

Integration

The opening of the line from Waldhof through Käfertal to the Rhine Valley line south of the Mannheim central station in 1880, enabled trains to run from the Riedbahn into Mannheim station from the south. In 1975 the railway between Darmstadt and Goddelau was closed due to lack of traffic and partly dismantled. There is currently no connection between the Riedbahn and the Darmstadt Mainz line.

High-speed traffic

Until 1985 trains from Frankfurt had to come from the south to reach Mannheim station and reverse to go south towards Heidelberg or Karlsruhe on the Rhine Valley line. Only with the opening of the convert|9.5|km|mi|0|sing=on long "westlichen Einführung der Riedbahn" (WER, western approach of the Riedbahn) to Mannheim central station did it become worthwhile for express trains using the Riedbahn to stop at Mannheim.

The line was built before regular ICE services commenced on June 1991. It has a maximum speed of convert|200|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on towards the north and its opening increased the line's capacity from 240 to 280 services per day. ["ABS Frankfurt–Mannheim: Streckenausbau im Zeitplan" and "ABS Frankfurt–Mannheim: Endspurt in Biebesheim", "Die Bundesbahn", Issue 7 1990, S. 724 f. de icon]

As the most-travelled line in Southern Germany the convert|78|km|mi|0|sing=on long Frankfurt-Mannheim line between Zeppelinheim and Mannheim-Waldhof, the line’s train control system is certified for speeds up to 200 km/h; although the maximum speed at the Biblis curve is about convert|90|km/h|mph|0|abbr=on. Most freight traffic runs over the parallel Main Neckar line because of its better connection to the Mannheim marshalling yard.

Notes

References

*de|Riedbahn